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Lucy Lawless Joins ‘Ash Vs. Evil Dead’ TV Series Cast

You can't keep the Deadites down for long. Luckily, when the forces of evil rise again in upcoming Starz series Ash Vs. Evil Dead, Bruce Campbell will be back to fight them in the role of Ashley J. Williams, the one-handed hero of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy. Ash Vs. Evil Dead picks up several decades after Army of Darkness, when Ash's attempts to lay low are thwarted by a resurgence in the world's Deadite population.

Ash Vs. Evil Dead will begin filming in New Zealand this spring, and Starz has now revealed that the show will star a native New Zealander. Lucy Lawless, who is best known for playing the lead role in Xena: Warrior Princess and more recently guest-starred in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Parks and Recreation, will join other regular cast members Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo and Jill Marie Jones in the new fight against evil.

Lawless will play Ruby, a mysterious figure who is determined to hunt down the source of the recent outbreaks of evil. Unfortunately for Ash, Ruby believes that the outbreaks are his fault.

This isn't the first time that Lawless has worked with Ash Vs. Evil Dead creators Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert; they were also executive producers on Xena: Warrior Princess and Spartacus, and Lawless had a brief cameo in Raimi's 2002 movie Spider-Man. Lawless and Campbell have also crossed paths in the past, with Campbell playing thief-with-a-heart-of-gold Autolycus on Xena: Warrior Princess and Lawless guest-starring in an episode of Burn Notice.

The Ash Vs. Evil Dead pilot episode will be directed by Raimi, who co-wrote the script with Ivan Raimi (Army of Darkness), Craig DiGregorio (Chuck) and Tom Spezialy (Reaper). Thereafter Raimi will serve as executive producer alongside Tapert and producer Aaron Lam (Spartacus). The first season will consist of 10 half-hour episodes.

It should be fun to see Lawless reunited with Campbell on-screen. Considering the rest of the cast is largely made up of newcomers, Ash Vs. Evil Dead will no doubt benefit from having another familiar face in a key role.